RTÉ secures rights to entire tournament in Australia and New Zealand
Ireland to face hosts Australia plus Canada and Nigeria
Following their historic play-off victory over Scotland, the Republic of Ireland will compete for the first time ever at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand with RTÉ announcing today (Monday 24 October, 2022) that it will broadcast the entire tournament next summer.
The draw for the finals took place in Auckland on Saturday where the Republic of Ireland were drawn in Group B and will face hosts Australia in Sydney (July 20), Olympic Gold medalists Canada in Perth (July 26) and Nigeria in Brisbane (July 31).
RTÉ has successfully secured these broadcast rights for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 through a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) agreement with FIFA covering 28 territories on behalf of 32 EBU member public service broadcasters.
Having followed the Republic of Ireland through a thrilling and ultimately successful qualifying campaign, RTÉ will proudly continue its support of Vera Pauw’s team by bringing Irish fans all the action from down under free-to-air next summer.
This further commitment to women’s football comes on the back of RTÉ’s extensive coverage not only of the Republic of Ireland’s qualifiers, but also of this summer’s UEFA Euro 2022 in England, as well as the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.
Declan McBennett, Group Head of Sport, RTÉ said: “Having been there on every step of the journey through qualification, we are delighted to be there for the ultimate destination of a women’s World Cup. This team have captured the imagination of generations at home and will no doubt receive a huge Irish backing from the Irish Down Under making the World Cup a thrilling experience. Across radio, television and online, RTÉ Sport will be there to reflect the endeavours of a very special group of Irish sporting talent and make sure we can all get behind our national team”.
Ireland’s World Cup qualifier against Scotland earlier this month attracted the highest ever TV audience for women’s soccer with an audience of 382,000 * while RTÉ Player had over 126,000 streams over the course of the qualification campaign.